The Stage

TV review

Published Monday 15 December 2008 at 15:10 by Harry Venning

Sketch shows really are ten a penny these days, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell them apart, but Beehive can at least boast the distinction of an all female cast. However, any initial hopes that this show may prove the successor to Smack The Pony are quickly dashed.

Beehive certainly has its moments, but not enough of them. Highlights included the demure geishas who were prone to very noisy flatulence, the playground full of George Michaels and the three musketeers whose “all for one and one for all’ philosophy extended to going out on a date. But a smile was all that these managed to raise, with the rest of the sketches leaving me cold.

I am assured by people whose judgment I trust that the episode I caught was an uncharacteristically weak one. Also, the show’s quartet of performers are all funny and charismatic. So Beehive probably deserves the benefit of the doubt, and a second chance. It might be a slow developer, but I am not hopeful.

Heather Mills has not enjoyed a particularly good press of late, so Star Stories waded into the fray to redress the balance. Its unique take upon tabloid events cast Paul McCartney as a sadistic and cruel tyrant, egged on by his manipulative daughter Stella, cosily living in a luxurious country house called Mandalay.

Heather, in contrast, is a shy and naive Geordie girl for whom her charity work is everything.

“Whose the daddy?” screams Paul in flashback, as he terrorises the other three Beatles into performing on the Abbey Road studio’s roof. So great was the programme’s excursion into delusional fantasy that it even suggested Sir Paul’s hair was dyed.

Jokes about Mills’ disability were inevitable but, given Star Stories’ gleefully puerile approach, remarkably few and far between.

Star Stories serves up pretty much the same fare every week, irrespective of its subject matter, but sheer nerve, energy and clever writing has so far kept it from going stale.

The best sitcom currently on TV has to be Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin’s Outnumbered, which succeeds in being both charming and funny in equal measure.

Hugh Dennis and Clare Skinner star as the parents to three young children. That’s about it, concept wise, and the plotlines are equally uncluttered. This week the family were delayed at a foreign airport and pass the time by playing games, crashing luggage trolleys, teasing police dogs, terrorising a passenger on crutches and trying to explain to a four year old child why religious fanatics might want to blow their plane up.

Apparently much of the younger cast members’ dialogue is semi improvised, which accounts for the stunningly spontaneous performances and some unexpectedly bizarre lines. For the grown ups there is a terrific script to deliver, packed with intelligence, wit, subtlety and imagination. Dennis and Skinner make the most of it, and also manage to generate considerable screen chemistry that holds the whole show together.

And not a laughter track anywhere to be heard.

DETAILS

Beehive - E4, Wednesday, December 10, 10.30pm

Star Stories - C4, Thursday, December 18, 10pm

Outnumbered - BBC1, Saturday, December 6, 9.40pm